2016 Fletcher-Morrow Shield Match

The Home Team (Ballarat) played White on the odd numbered boards, with the visitors managing to secure a 6-4 victory.

Individual and Club results are shown below:

Board

White

Black

Result

Club

1

James WATSON

1821

Binh NGUYEN

1900

0-1

G

2

Michael SUGRUE

1867

Bas VAN RIEL

1880

1-0

G

3

Rodney JACOBS

1659

Geoffrey GILL

1790

0-1

G

4

Zoran BABIC

1751

Patrick COOK

1633

0-1

B

5

Kevin PERRIN

1606

Reza DANESHVAR

1743

0-1

G

6

Geoff BARBER

1635

Rob LOVEBAND

1571

1-0

G

7

Robert BAILEY

1515

Owen COURTIS

1634

½

½

8

Mio RISTIC

1551

Michael TAUSZ

1491

½

½

9

Jamie BROTHERIDGE

1554

Geoff DAVIS

1458

1-0

B

10

Nick MCCLAREN

1350

James EYRE

1262

0-1

B

Reserve

Cassandra BARNETT

1097

Jack SMITH

1250

½

–

The early signs were ominous, with Geelong blitzing the top three boards in an average of only 18 moves per game. But with typical resilience and depth of talent, Ballarat bounced back to take four of the next six points. The overall result was still in dispute until the end of the very last game, with Geoff Barber finally prevailing in a slashing tactical battle against Rob Loveband.

A PGN file of all games played may be downloaded, there is also excellent coverage of results, including annotated games, at the Ballarat Chess Club web site.

It was a great day of chess, with the Ballarat Chess Club offering both friendly hospitality and spirited opposition. Rest assured, they will be looking to even the ledger in 2017!